A Meaningfull Bond
by Swordsoul2000
Summary: after all sunagakure has done to Gaara, feared him, dispised him, killed his mother, and driven away his father, why does he stay? GaaraOC paring, SEQUEL to Son of the Red Sand, no lemons or limes


I'm sorry if this wasn't the sequel you expected. Truthfully, I wouldn't call this a sequel, not in the multiple chapter sense. However, this is what my muse produced. I was agonizing over what to write, before this popped into my brain.

Special thanks to for whose review gave me the nudge I needed to start this.

Now, my loyal readers, enjoy

Dawn was braking in Sunagakure, and apart from those shinobi on guard duty, only one pair of eyes saw it rise. Despite the fact that he was enjoying his new privilege of sleep, his body, used to keeping himself awake all the time, refused to let him sleep for long periods of time

There was something about the sight of Suna in the early morning light that simply took his breath away. The way the light hit just so, seeing the winding streets and alleyways become defined out of the gloom, the light changing the usually creamy sandstone walls to a remarkable light rose. 'Almost the _exact_ shade of Akari-chan's blushes.' He thought with a small smirk.

Yoshida Akari had moved to Sunagakure close to two years ago now with her parents. Neither she, nor any member of her family were shinobi, but her father was a blacksmith who made and sold every type of shinobi hardware from kunai, to arrow heads, to tripwire, and battle fans, so they were given permission to settle in the village. As Kazekage, it was one of his duties to meet prospective settlers and access wither or not they proved a threat to the village. One of the things he'd noticed right away was that while her parents were nervous about this new start, Akari hadn't been. She'd sat quietly behind her father for the entire interview, and silently dared him to turn her family away.

Intrigued, he'd let them stay. The new shop was located close to the Kazekage tower, for security's sake, and once or twice in the first few months, he'd stopped by, once to pick up a new battle fan for Temari, a present to congratulate her for her promotion to jounin. Another time, he'd picked up some unusual weaponry that was lying around the shop for Kankuro's new puppet. Every time he'd visited, Akari and he had talked, not a lot as neither were the talkative type, but they'd shared stories. Akari had told him about why her family had come to Suna, a long involved story involving her father's shop, careless Iwa shinobi, and some misplaced explosive tags. He'd told her about growing up alone, about how everyone including his siblings feared him. He even told her about Shukaku, knowing that someone would tell her if he didn't, and he wanted her to hear it from him. She didn't judge him, nor did she gush condolences. She accepted him, and that was enough.

Lately, he'd started realizing that he often looked for her in the village, or failing that for her father's shop, when he needed to steady himself. A small glimpse of her running errands was enough to allow him to keep his temper so he could get through entire council meetings, no matter how boring, or how thinly the councilors hid their hatred of him. When he'd returned 3 months ago after having Shukaku extracted and the revelations he'd learned then, he'd gone straight to her father's shop, before even returning to his residence to change into his Kazekage robes so he could reassure his people that he was back and unharmed. She was the first person he'd shared his true parentage with, before he'd told even his siblings.

Now if he could just pin down just exactly what she meant to him, he'd be fine. Sometimes she was impossible to be around; sometimes he felt he couldn't do anything without her. She could be coldly silent and dismissive, yet she was also full of intelligent and witty conversation. Temari liked her, and Kankuro avoided her after one to many cracks about 'boys who played dress up with dolls', both points in her favor. She spoke her mind, and didn't fawn over him because he was Kazekage, unlike several of the village girls. When she spoke, people listened, and she also knew when to hold her tongue. The last was a virtue that Gaara was forced to admit still needed to be learned by more Suna shinobi than he was.

If he had to quote Naruto, Akari was a precious person to him. But it was more than that. When his Akatsuki kidnapper had deployed that enormous clay bomb at the village itself, right at ground zero of the projected explosion, was Akari's father's shop. The real reason he'd exhausted himself blocking the detonation, he privately admitted, wasn't to save Sunagakure, it was to save Akari. He still didn't' trust the village in general, not completely. The scars of a lifetime of fear, distrust, and hatred didn't simply go away, not even after almost three years of tolerance. Truth be told, it was only because of his siblings that he'd returned to Sunagakure after he'd met Naruto. And when his siblings were no longer enough to keep him from gong on a rampage, he'd met Akari.

To keep her safe, he'd keep everyone safe. He'd found in Akari a reason to stay where he was; a bond that mattered finally bound him to Suna. As he watched from his place on top of the Kazekage tower, he saw the village start to come alive. Patrol shifts were changing, the first civilian early birds were rising. For as long as Akari was safe in this village, he'd continue to protect it.

There she was, opening her father's shop, her raven hair standing out against to the surroundings. Gaara allowed himself one of his rare smiles at the sight of her, before returning to the Kazekage tower to begin the day.

Poor Gaara. He's got it bad, doesn't he?

There has to be a reason that he protects Suna, even after all the village has made him go through. The reason I made Akari a civilian immigrant, was that I wanted Gaara to be able to protect her with out getting his face bitten off which would happen if she was a kunoichi, and the reason I made her new to Suna is that I didn't want her to be a part of his bad childhood memories.

Remember when Gaara smiling when he's introduced in shippuden? I think he's smiling at her.

Reviews are love! Don't stint!


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